McCain calls for better ties with Pakistan against ‘common’ enemy
US Republican Senator John McCain, who is on a rare trip to Pakistan, has called for better cooperation between Washington and Islamabad to fight what he calls a common enemy.
Speaking after a meeting with Pakistani Foreign Ministry officials on Monday, McCain hoped for more progress in the two countries’ joint efforts against Daesh and other extremist groups.
"We come back with a message that we have a common enemy in ISIS (Daesh),” McCain told Pakistan's national PTV channel, adding that “we look forward to closer relations and resolving the differences we have.”
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said such meetings would help “in confronting a common challenge.”
He then visited Miranshah, the capital of the restive North Waziristan region, which was overrun by militants from Taliban and the Haqqani network before the Pakistani military recaptured it in 2014.
The visit comes amid rocky relations between the US and Pakistan over Washington’s claim that Islamabad is unwilling to eradicate terror groups.
Pakistan firmly rejects the allegation, saying its abilities to fight terrorists are limited as it fears “blowback” in form of more terror attacks on its citizens.
The relations were further frayed in April, when the US State Department declassified a series of cables that accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of assisting militants in their attack on CIA’s Camp Chapman in Afghanistan.
The documents hinted at a meeting between militants from the al-Qaeda affiliate, the Haqqani network, and a number of unidentified officers with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in 2009, days after seven CIA officers and a Jordanian intelligence agent were killed during the attack that was carried out by a double agent, a Jordanian named Hammam Khalil Mohammed.
The Haqqani network is an ally of the Taliban and al-Qaeda militant groups.
Washington has indicated that future payments of hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan rely on Islamabad’s efforts to destroy the group.
Back in May, the US Senate prevented Washington from financing Pakistan’s purchase of up to eight Lockheed Martin F-16s.
Republican Senator Bob Corker described the move as a message to Pakistan over its “duplicity” in the war against the Taliban and other militant groups.
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